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Bernazard Finds Himself in Middle of Mets’ Turmoil

ANAHEIM, Calif. — The Mets had just started taking batting practice Wednesday evening, and Tony Bernazard, the team’s vice president for development, was standing about 20 feet behind the cage. Alfredo Griffin, the Los Angeles Angels’ first-base coach and Bernazard’s teammate on the 1987 Oakland Athletics, ran over and pumped his hand. Off to the side, Carlos Beltrán, limbering up, offered a smile and slapped Bernazard on the shoulder.

They go back to 1994, when Bernazard was working for the players union and Beltrán, then 17, was seeking representation advice. They grew closer 10 years later, when Bernazard, in his second month on the job, played a major role in recruiting Beltrán to sign with the Mets.

Until recently, Bernazard, one of General Manager Omar Minaya’s trusted advisers, had been best known as a Met for helping Minaya lure free agents to Queens. But in the fractured, upside-down world of the Mets, where managers are fired while a city sleeps, where the team’s ownership is now being belittled, Bernazard has emerged as something of a one-man lightning rod, portrayed in various news media reports as a meddler and a divisive force who undercut Randolph, partly by forming his own alliances with players, particularly Hispanic ones.

When asked about these charges on Wednesday, Bernazard said he did not want to respond to what he termed unsubstantiated speculation nor discuss what role he might have played, if any, in the dismissal of Randolph and two Mets coaches. But he was willing to confirm what Minaya himself had said earlier in the day — that in 2004, when the Mets were searching for a new manager, he was among those who recommended Randolph to Minaya.

The 51-year-old Bernazard has a long baseball résumé. Primarily a second baseman, he was a career .262 hitter who played for six teams during his 10 seasons in the major leagues. In 1992, a year after being released by Detroit, he joined the players union as a special assistant to the executive director, Donald Fehr. His role afforded him the opportunity to develop bonds with various players.

“I remember Tony would come during spring training sometimes,” Beltrán said. “He always used to come by and say hi to me and ask how I was doing. He’s a good friend of mine. I can go to him and talk about baseball, family, anything.”

Bernazard left the union to join the Mets in late 2004, coming aboard as a special assistant to Minaya, which was, more or less, a paid position for all the free advice he had previously dispensed his friend. Within a month, he had helped to sign Beltrán. The following off-season, he played an active role in attracting Billy Wagner. That was also when the Mets acquired Carlos Delgado, who, during the Mets’ unsuccessful courtship of him a year earlier, had criticized Bernazard for overplaying their shared Puerto Rican heritage.

That issue died, though, when Delgado joined the team, and Bernazard, as he passes through the clubhouse before home games, often stops for a brief chat or a handshake with the first baseman. But those gestures underline one of the criticisms that have been directed at Bernazard — that he has milled around the Mets’ clubhouse a good deal more than front-office people in baseball normally do, although Bernazard has been less visible in the clubhouse this season than in 2007.

For Minaya, there is no issue involving Bernazard, whom he described as a “very passionate, competitive baseball man.”

“Tony Bernazard should be an asset for us because of his great relationship with players and his baseball knowledge,” Minaya said. “Tony Bernazard has helped this organization in the recruitment of premium players — not only Latino players. Billy Wagner ain’t exactly Latino.”

“Sometimes people may not like that, sometimes coaches may not like that,” said Minaya, who also contended that he himself was a visible figure in the Mets’ clubhouse back in the days when he was an assistant general manager on the team.

Randolph and Bernazard played against each other in the 1980s and were nearly teammates as well. When Randolph injured his left knee in July 1987, the Yankees unsuccessfully tried to fill the void by making a deal with Cleveland for Bernazard.

It was clear, though, that Randolph did not appreciate Bernazard’s clubhouse presence in recent seasons or the fact that Bernazard would spend time before Mets games against the Washington Nationals by catching up with the Nationals’ manager, Manny Acta, who used to be the Mets’ third-base coach.

When asked about Acta, Bernazard pointed to other friendships he maintains with other major league managers. “I’m friendly with Bobby Cox,” said Bernazard, referring to the Atlanta Braves’ manager. “How come nobody asks about that? I’m friendly with Tony La Russa. He was my manager in Chicago. I talked to Mike Scioscia yesterday. He’s my friend, too. Manny and I are friends. We go back. How is that different?”

Bernazard makes about a third of the Mets’ road trips, including all of the visits to Philadelphia which is about 20 miles closer to his home in Princeton, N.J., than Shea Stadium is. And he was with the Mets on Wednesday, the only front-office representative still present after Minaya and other officials returned to New York.

He watches batting practice before every game he attends, often off to the side, so he can evaluate both his players and those on opposing teams without distraction. And he was doing so on Wednesday night, amid the Mets’ current turmoil, knowing that he, too, has become a character in the Mets’ unhappy drama.

A version of this article appears in print on , on Page D1 of the New York edition with the headline: Bernazard Finds Himself In Middle of Mets’ Turmoil. Order Reprints|Today's Paper|Subscribe